


Imajean and the Spiderling

by Angela_Jahnel



Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, Gen, Horror, Monsters, One Shot, Western, mild violence, young adult readers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 05:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13827621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angela_Jahnel/pseuds/Angela_Jahnel
Summary: A young girl must confront a creature living on her family farm.





	Imajean and the Spiderling

**Author's Note:**

> This story is purposefully written in a storytelling style, so there is very little written dialogue. For this same reason, the characters are not described in great detail. The parents are just Mother and Father. The story is sort of like the Goosebumps series, so it is mildly scary, with very little violence. "The Thirteen Warriors", another story of mine, gives a backstory for the creature encountered by Imajean.

Imajean had always been a clever girl. She was only nine years old, but she knew a lot about life. She was the only child in her family, which meant that she had to help out father on the farm. Her father was new to the farming life and, in her opinion, needed all the help he could get. Father had worked for a law firm in Boston before he decided to gamble their home, and most of their belongings, on a new life out west. Father had the frontier spirit, like many people these days, but not the know-how. He was doing his best though. He had purchased an abandoned farm with a house and barn already on site. The buildings were a bit run-down, but serviceable. Father happily pointed out that the property already had a water well, so he wouldn’t have to dig one.

That well bothered Imajean. There was something wrong about it. It looked positively ancient, not like something that had been dug by the previous farmer. There weren’t any stones or bricks around the edge like a proper well should have. There was just a rough circle of what looked like black glass. Imajean asked her father about it the first time they saw the farm. He said it was obsidian, a type of volcanic glass. Since there were no volcanoes in the area, Imajean thought this was a bit odd. Father just shrugged and said he didn’t know how it got there. All the wells on neighboring farms had neatly cut stones with mortar and high sides that came up past Imajean’s waist. The well on their farm looked sunken by comparison, with the lip of the well only a few inches above the ground. Imajean secretly wondered if some ancient civilization built the well. It looked like it had been almost completely buried by blowing dirt over long centuries. She knew better than to mention these theories to Mother and Father though. They already thought she had too much imagination, as if that was a horrible handicap. Mother thought she should spend more time focusing on becoming a ‘proper lady’ and less time reading and daydreaming. 

#####

Imajean settled into farm life with surprising ease. She was a quick learner and did her best to help her not-so-quick father. She always accompanied father when he went to the General Store in town so she could learn new farming techniques. She would listen to the other farmers and ranchers and remember everything they said about feed, livestock, crops, and any other topics of interest. When her poor father seemed at a loss about what to do in a certain situation, Imajean would scour her memory for anything that might be helpful. 

“Father, Mr. MacGregor said the best crop this year will be corn. Said he can feel it in his waters, whatever that means. And Mr. Marlow said it should be a good lambing season this year. He’s got ewes for sale and some of them are ready to give birth,” Imajean volunteered as they strolled through the tiny town. 

“Well then, my girl, why don’t we try both corn and sheep?”, father cheerfully replied. 

Father tended to have a lighthearted approach to the farming life, as if their lives didn’t actually depend on whether or not he had a successful harvest. If he tried something and failed, he just shrugged his shoulders and tried something else. Pretty soon, the money was going to dry up and they’d be in a world of trouble. Imajean was surprised her father didn’t seem to fully grasp the severity of the situation. Sometimes Imajean wondered why she appeared to be more world-wise than her own father, who was an actual grown up. When she brought up the subject with Mother, she was told to have faith in Father and not to worry. Mother also told Imajean she was far too cynical for a girl of nine and that it was unbecoming, whatever that meant.

In town one day, Father headed to the General Store to buy seed corn. He waived at a few townsfolk in greeting and struck up a few conversations, trying to sound knowledgeable about the farming life. He didn’t need her help so Imajean wandered over to the blacksmith. Everyone knew the best stories were told around the smithy, and Imajean loved stories. Her favorite storyteller was Ike, an “Injun” man as her father called him. After getting to know the dark-skinned man, Imajean discovered that his name was actually Ikal, which he said meant ‘Spirit’. He wasn’t an Indian either. His mother was from far to the south. He said her ancestors were Mayan, but Imajean didn’t know of anyplace called Maya. Ike had chuckled at that, his face crinkling into a field of deep wrinkles, his black eyes flashing in merriment. 

It was Ike who first told her why their family farm had been abandoned. Imajean had wondered why someone would leave such a good location. Her family farm had a nice little creek only a short walk from the house, although it dried up in the heat of summer. There were also plenty of trees near the creek for firewood. The property had the deep water well, the one that Imajean instinctively disliked, and it had the finished house and barn. Ike said the local Indian tribes avoided the place because it was haunted by demons. He said the previous farmer, Mr. Davies, constantly lost livestock, plus a few odds and ends kept disappearing from his house. Ike said the old man was a bit of a character, claiming that his father used to be a pirate. 

“He wore this thick silver chain ‘round his wrist, with a silver Spanish coin attached to it. He swore his daddy stole it from a Spanish galleon,” Ike laughed.

Ike said that after a while, Mr. Davies became paranoid and started to blame the locals, calling them cattle rustlers and thieves. His behavior became so erratic, that everyone eventually shunned him. He disappeared one day and no one knew what happened to him. This information disturbed Imajean greatly, so she finally got up the courage to tell father. 

“What a bunch of superstitious nonsense!”, father laughed. His tone darkened a bit as he added, “I don’t want you talking to that Injun anymore. He’s nothing but trouble.”

“Yes father,” Imajean meekly replied, vowing to keep her mouth shut from now on.

Father had changed his mind at the last minute and decided to try his hand at a little of everything. He bought a dairy cow with a calf, a few sheep which had just given birth to the most adorable lambs, and a few chickens as well. 

#####

Back on the farm, Imajean did her best to help father. She really enjoyed milking the cow and tending to all the other animals. She felt happy and useful and, after a while, she forgot about the worrisome story that Ike told her. One evening, as Imajean milked the cow, Prissy Cat sashayed into the barn, fluffy tail waving. She was a lovely cat with long, white fur that Mother had brought from their old home in Boston. She really was a useless creature, but Imajean enjoyed her company. She’d led a pampered indoor life back home and had no idea what to do with the multitude of mice running around out here in the country. 

“You aren’t getting any milk, you know. Go chase mice, you lazy cat,” Imajean laughed.

As the sun began to set, Imajean hurried to finish her chores. She carried the heavy milk bucket back toward the house with Prissy Cat following close on her heels. Prissy Cat stopped suddenly and a low growl rumbled from her throat. Imajean stopped dead in her tracks. That growl triggered something primal in her. What was Prissy Cat afraid of? Imajean slowly looked around, but saw no coyotes or wolves, no snakes or other deadly creatures. Prissy Cat was staring intently at the well and backing slowly away. She hissed suddenly, then turned and dashed around the side of the house. Imajean rushed inside as fast as her legs would carry her. 

The next morning, Imajean called out to Prissy Cat, but she was nowhere to be found. She usually stayed in the house or barn, but she wasn’t in either of her usual haunts. 

“She probably went off to town to look for a tom cat,” Father chuckled, earning himself ‘a look’ from Mother. 

If this was about where babies came from, Imajean already knew. She’d only been a farmer for a short while, but she understood how things worked. Imajean hoped Prissy Cat came back soon. She missed talking to her four legged friend. The neighboring farms were several miles apart and neither of them had children her age. Prissy Cat was pretty much the only friend she had.   
#####

Several weeks later, Imajean was in her room in the loft, staring out the window and watching the full moon rise. The nearby town didn’t have a school yet, so Mother had to home school Imajean. Her assignment for this week, besides writing and arithmetic, was to study the moon. Mother had given her special permission to stay up late and study the shining orb.

Imajean scratched a quick sketch onto her slate with a large piece of chalk. She filled in the few dark patches on the moon, then studied its position in the sky. It was a beautiful sight as the huge, silvery disk rose high above the trees. She craned her head back to track its progress across the night sky. Imajean leaned out the open window when the moon moved above the roof line of the house, but it had become lost from her sight. She sighed and turned her attention to the farm yard. 

The full moon illuminated the ground below as if it were midday. She turned to go back to bed, when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Was it a coyote or wolf coming for the calf and lambs? Imajean was instantly alert. The animals were her responsibility and she knew father would be angry if anything happened to them.

Imajean trained her eyes onto the moon-dappled grass below, trying to catch any sign of movement. There was faint stirring at the edge of the well, that horrible, unnerving well. She saw something pale and long and thin standing out starkly against the black edge of the well. Was it some sort of snake? She watched, transfixed, as the ‘snake’ turned out to be a single, impossibly long finger. Another finger followed the first, then another, and another. The fingers seemed to have too many joints, dozens and dozens of them, which folded in upon themselves or snaked across the ground. The fingers scrabbled for a grip on the edge of the well, finally hooking themselves on the shallow stone lip. The entire hand, when it finally appeared, looked like a huge, ghostly-pale spider. 

Imajean shuddered as more of the creature rose into view. The arms looked similar to the fingers; too long and with too many joints to be human. They seemed to unfold themselves from the tight confines of the well like a jittery flower blossoming in fast-forward. When the head finally rose into view, Imajean had to stuff her hands into her mouth to keep from screaming. That face! That horrible, horrible face! It had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but stretched out like taffy. The eyes were pools of blackness that seemed to be running down the face. The nose consisted of two hollow cavities spreading downward toward the mouth….oh mercy, the mouth! Impossibly long and full of so many, many teeth! The creature somehow sensed Imajean watching from the window above. It turned its runny eyes toward her and gave her a long, long smile. It unfurled its multi-jointed legs and scuttled spider-like toward the barn. 

Imajean shut her eyes tightly, willing the apparition away. After long moments, she opened her eyes and scanned the grass below. She had almost convinced herself it was a dream or hallucination. She must be letting her imagination get the better of her. Imajean thought of going back to bed, but her body would not obey. Instead, she stood there, rooted to the spot. Watching, waiting...for what? It was just a dream, wasn’t it?

The creature came back into view, dragging one of the lambs. It paused at the edge of the well, seeming to bathe in the moonlight, pale flesh glowing. It smiled its long smile at Imajean and held up its prize, as if to taunt her. Then, it folded itself down into the well, dragging the struggling lamb with it.

#####

The next morning, Imajean immediately ran to the well to see if there was any evidence of the creature. She had almost convinced herself it was all a frightening dream, when she noticed the claw marks in the dirt surrounding the well. Imajean plucked a tiny bit of lambs wool from a broken bit of glass near the lip of the well. She backed away slowly, afraid the creature would pop out suddenly and drag her into the cold, watery depths. 

“Imajean, did you hear any coyotes last night? One of the lambs is missing.”

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Father’s voice. She could only shake her head in answer. Her throat was suddenly too dry to speak.

Imajean hurried through her chores, then stayed in the house the rest of the day. She didn’t want to be outside where that horrible creature had been. Mother thought her behavior was a bit odd, but she thought maybe Imajean was maturing and wanted to learn more about a woman’s chores. She tried to teach Imajean more about sewing and cooking, but her daughter seemed distracted. When Mother asked her to fetch water from the well for cooking, Imajean flatly refused. She knew she would get whipped with the belt for boldly disobeying her mother, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t going anywhere near that well, and she most certainly didn’t want to drink water polluted by that foul creature. She and Mother finally compromised and Imajean walked to the creek to fetch the water instead. In her heart, Imajean knew this was only a temporary solution because the creek would eventually dry up. She dreaded the coming of Summer.

Several weeks passed without seeing the Spiderling. That was the name Imajean chose for the creature, since it looked so spider-like. She actually began to doubt what she saw that moonlit night. As the weeks passed, Imajean started to convince herself that maybe it really was a dream and that coyotes got the lamb. However, as another full moon approached, Imajean began to lose her nerve. What if the Spiderling only came out of the well during the full moon? Would it steal another lamb?

As the full moon rose high above the house, Imajean watched impatiently at her window. Nothing stirred until the moon seemed to be directly over the well, then she saw moon-pale fingers creeping around the edge, just like before. She somehow managed to will her body into movement. She climbed down the ladder to the loft and ran to Mother and Father’s bedroom. Imajean shook her father awake, urgently whispering “Father! Something’s after the lambs!”

Father jerked awake, grabbed his shotgun and ran out into the night in nothing but his nightshirt. Imajean chased after him, bare feet churning up the dirt. As the well came into view, Imajean stopped dead in her tracks. The Spiderling was almost completely out of the well, but Father ran right past it and into the barn. What was going on? The Spiderling was poised on the lip of the well, watching Imajean with those runny eyes. It looked toward her father as he came out of the barn looking confused, then turned back to Imajean with a long, long smile. It knew that Father couldn’t see it!

“Were you dreaming, child? There’s nothing here and the lambs are all safe. Don’t you dare wake me up for something like this again!”, Father’s voice rose with his irritation.

Imajean hung her head, but kept her eyes on the Spiderling sitting on top of its well. It somehow managed to look quite smug. In a rare moment of temper, Father gave her behind a little swat to get her moving along faster. 

“Git back into the house, girl!”

The next morning when Father went out to the barn, another lamb was missing. He stood there looking completely perplexed. Imajean wanted to say “I told you so.” but kept her mouth shut. She knew what was taking the lambs and devouring them in the cold darkness of the well. She shuddered as she imagined the crunching of bone, the tearing of flesh. Imajean had to find a way to save the poor little lambs. What if the creature eventually ran out of livestock and decided to try the taste of human? Imajean wasn’t sure if old Mr. Davies gave up farming and left for parts unknown or if the Spiderling ate him. If Father didn’t believe her, she would have to find a way to stop this creature all by herself.

#####

A few days passed and Imajean still didn’t know what to do. She desperately wanted to go into town and ask Ike for advice. He always seemed to know about everything. The trouble was, Father didn’t need anything in town. Imajean wasn’t allowed to go into town by herself, so she had to be patient. She decided to be brave one day and look around the barn and the well, to see if she could find any clues on how to defeat this creature. The barn yielded nothing but hay, cow dung, and flies, but the well itself was another story. 

As Imajean pulled aside the grass near the well, she saw something shining in the dirt. A piece of chain was buried deep in the hard-packed soil. She got hold of one end and pulled. Imajean was quite surprised when the chain only turned out to be a few inches long. It popped out of the soil, sending her sprawling onto her backside in the grass. 

Imajean examined the broken bit of chain. It was quite intricate, with several loops of chain worked into each other. The chain was as thick as her little finger and the overall design reminded her of fish ribs. Imajean dug around some more, curious to see if there were any more bits of chain. What she found instead were bones, lots of little bones. She assumed the bones were from small animals that the creature had devoured, but Imajean had a horrible feeling in her gut. When Mother wasn’t looking, Imajean slipped into the house and found a small muslin bag. She dashed back outside and gathered up the little bones, added the bit of chain, then stashed the bag in a pocket of her dress.

Another full moon came and Imajean decided to sneak out and sleep in the barn. If she had to defend the lambs with a pitchfork, then she would! She waited and waited, up in the hay loft, but the Spiderling never came. As the sky began to lighten, Imajean finally fell asleep in the hay. 

“Girl! What do you think you’re doing out here?!”

Imajean jerked awake, scattering bits of straw everywhere. She peeked out of the hay and saw her father clinging to the hayloft ladder. His face looked very angry, and very worried. 

“I was trying to protect the lambs, Father! If anything showed up, I was going to jab it with the pitchfork,” Imajean attempted to explain.

Father glanced around the barn and his tone softened. “Well, I guess you did a good job of that, since the lambs are all accounted for. Trouble is, we were robbed last night. My pocket watch is gone and your mother’s silver hand mirror is missing too. We were both worried sick when we couldn’t find you. We thought someone had stolen you as well!”

Imajean’s mind reeled. Ike said that old Mr. Davies lost all sorts of items, as well as livestock. Was the Spiderling stealing things from the house? Her whole body shook at the thought of that horrible creature prowling through her home in the middle of the night. She pictured it creeping around in the same room as her mother and father while they slept, blissfully unaware of the horrid monster. But why would it steal things like a watch or a mirror? It made no sense! Oh how she wished she could talk to Ike! Imajean suddenly thought of an idea.

“Father, maybe we should go to town and ask if there are any strangers in town. I don’t think one of the locals would rob us, so it must be a stranger, right?”

Father agreed, muttering something about getting a lock for the door while they were in town. He hitched up the horses, helped Imajean into the wagon, and they headed to town. As soon as Father was busy telling the townsfolk about their troubles, Imajean hurried off to find Ike. He wasn’t in his usual spot near the smithy, but she finally tracked him down near the stables. He was refilling the water troughs for the horses when she ran up, out of breath.

“Hey there young Miss! Why you in such a hurry?”, he greeted her with a smile.

Imajean blurted out the entire story in a rush, afraid Father would catch her talking to Ike. His dark eyes opened wide when she told him about the Spiderling.

“Maybe those Indians was right. The place is haunted by demons!”, Ike said, shaking his head in dismay.

Ike thought a moment, trying to make sense of it all. Imajean nervously glanced down the street, expecting to see Father at any moment. A Magpie flitted to the ground by Ike’s feet, pecked at something in the dusty street, then snatched up a shiny button and flew away.

“Young Miss, I wonder if that creature is like that there Magpie? Those birds love to collect shiny things. They decorate their nests with ‘em, you know,” Ike volunteered.

That made sense! It stole things because they were pretty. Well, that was one question possibly answered. Imajean pulled the little bag full of bones from her dress pocket and handed it to Ike. 

“I found these near the well. There’s a piece of chain and an awful lot of little animal bones.” 

Ike poured the contents of the bag into his palm and examined the bones closely. 

“These here are finger bones, Miss, and all these little bones are from the rest of a hand. This is from a person, not an animal.”

Imajean was shocked, but somehow she’d known deep down that the bones had belonged to a person. 

“Do you think these bones belonged to Mr. Davies?”, she whispered, barely trusting her voice. A little wavering whine had crept into her voice as she tried to stamp down her fear.

Ike nodded, causing his long, black hair to sway. 

“Yes Ma’am. This bit of chain is the same type he wore ‘round his wrist. The chain had that silver coin on it. Remember I told you about it? I don’t suppose you found the coin? It was worth a fair amount of money.”

Imajean wasn’t paying attention. Her thoughts whirled. So the creature had killed Mr. Davies after all! But why couldn’t Father see the horrible creature?! It was sitting right in front of him! 

“You all right, Miss? You look mighty concerned.”

“Father couldn’t see it, Ike! But I could, plain as day! How can I get Father to help me stop it if he can’t even see it?”, Imajean wailed in frustration.

“Y’know, I remember my grandma telling me something. She was from my pa’s side of the family and she was from a place called Ireland. She told me that sometimes, demons and fairyfolk and suchlike can’t be seen by people. Only children can see their true selves… and cats, for some reason.”

Imajean’s mind flashed back to Prissy Cat hissing at the well before bedtime that night. She’d gone missing the next day, hadn’t she? Had there been a full moon that night? Imajean couldn’t remember, but she was now certain that Prissy Cat had known about the creature.

“Grandma also said fairy folk don’t like iron. It hurts ‘em somehow. Maybe if you scatter some iron tools around that well, it’ll trap the nasty thing down there and it’ll starve to death,” Ike added.

Imajean’s head bubbled with ideas. She remembered to thank Ike for all his help, then she hurried back to the General Store before Father missed her. 

When Imajean got home, she had the beginnings of a plan. She spent a lot of time that afternoon around the well, studying it, measuring it. Both Mother and Father were confused by her sudden change in attitude. Before, she would hardly ever go near the well. When the creek had finally dried up in the Summer heat, Imajean had refused to fetch water from the well, even though it was now the only source for the precious liquid. Now, she seemed to be spending long hours on some sort of project near the lip of the well. Mother and Father just shook their heads and returned to their chores. They would never understand their peculiar daughter. 

#####  
Imajean waited impatiently for the next full moon. When it finally arrived, she was ready. She watched as the Spiderling again pulled its long, multi-jointed body from the well. It stood there a moment, basking in the moon-glow. Its pale, waxy skin reminded Imajean of candle wax. She was sure that skin had never seen the light of day. 

This time, the Spiderling did something different. It sat near the well and seemed to be fiddling with something. Imajean squinted her eyes and saw tiny reflections of moonlight around the well. The Spiderling was decorating the well with coins and buttons and bits of glass. Imajean spotted Father’s pocket watch and Mother’s silver hand mirror in the collection, and what looked like a large Spanish coin. When the creature seemed happy with its display, it turned its runny eyes heavenward and unfurled its multi-jointed arms toward the sky. Was it worshiping the full moon? What a strange creature. 

Once the creature seemed satisfied with its bizarre ritual, it skittered off to the barn for a snack. Imajean had been watching quietly from one of the downstairs windows, so she didn’t have to climb down the loft ladder in the dark. She crept outside, closing the door quietly so as not to wake Mother and Father. Knowing she had mere moments before the creature returned, Imajean raced around the side of the house. She reached the spot where she’d hidden the iron rim from an old wagon wheel. She rolled the heavy rim all the way to the well, then carefully lowered it around the lip. It was an almost perfect fit. She quickly ran back inside the house, hoping her plan would be a success. 

Imajean saw the Spiderling approach the well with a struggling lamb, bleating in fear. When it reached the edge of the well, it started to crawl inside, using the stone lip as a handhold. There was a bright flash like lightening, and the Spiderling howled in pain. The frightened lamb dropped from the Spiderling’s fingers and landed on the grass. Completely forgotten for the moment, the lamb was smart enough to run back to the relative safety of the barn. 

Imajean silently cheered as the Spiderling crept cautiously around the well, sniffing and probing. Every time it touched the iron rim, there was a flash and the creature howled again. How can Mother and Father not hear this thing? Imajean wondered. Maybe they can’t see it or hear it?

Imajean crept quietly up to her bedroom and watched the Spiderling through her window. She watched all night as the creature tried to escape back down the well, its lamb dinner long forgotten. As the sky began to lighten in the east, the Spiderling became even more agitated, its efforts more frantic. At one point, it tried to leap straight down the well without touching the sides, but its body was too long and too uncoordinated. The Spiderling’s limbs became a tangled ball as it tried to drop down, and one part of it must have touched the iron rim. Imajean saw the bright spark and heard the wail of pain. 

As the sun rose over the edge of the earth, Imajean watched as the Spiderling’s flesh began to darken, then blacken. It shrieked and thrashed in the sunlight, long legs flailing toward the sky. The creature’s blackened skin split and oozed a foul liquid. Its body began to smoke, then the Spiderling exploded in a shower of ash! Imajean watched with satisfaction as the ash slowly drifted away on the breeze. 

Father wouldn’t have to worry about losing any more lambs now. She rubbed her tired eyes, knowing she’d get no sleep today. Imajean smiled down at the well and went about her chores for the day, making sure to retrieve all of the lost items from around the well. She thought she’d give the silver coin to Ike the next time she went to town. He deserved it for all of his help.

It was a rough life, being a farmer, but Imajean thought she was up to the task.

**Author's Note:**

> My use of the word "Injun" is not meant to be offensive to Native Americans. I was trying to use a term that would sound like old west slang and to reflect the prejudices of the time. I am part Native American (Choctaw) and I truly hope my use of that term does not offend anyone. For the origin story of the Spiderling, please see The Thirteen Warriors.


End file.
